.s. naval acadny at nap lows -- annapolis, maryland. we're now joined by richard ruth, a professor here at the naval academy. professor ruth, what do you teach? >> i teach predominantly southeast asian history, although i do offer courses in premodern asian history, mostly concentrating on thailand and vietnam. >> host: so why is it important? >> guest: the united states is still very much engaged in that corner of the world. we have many allies there, partners we're still working with, and many students at the naval caidmy are going to be officers who are going to go to southeast asia, and they're going to represent our interest there. so i think it's important for them to know southeast asian history, to be comfortable with the cultures and to have some knowledge of their histories. >> host: well, professor ruth, one of our longtime allies is thailand, and you've written a book called "in buddha's company: thai soldiers in the vietnam war." what role did their military play in the vietnam war? >> guest: thailand was actually a very close ally o
